The present invention relates generally to pucks for games such as hockey and, more specifically, to a puck for use on non-ice surfaces and a method for making the puck.
The game of ice hockey uses a short, cylindrical puck formed of a hard rubber compound, which is propelled across the ice surface using hockey sticks. An important skill for hockey players is puck handling. Puck handling refers to the players"" skill at controlling the motion of a puck using the hockey stick. Good puck handling skills require extensive training and practice. However, many hockey players spend much of their practice time training on non-ice surfaces.
A standard ice hockey puck has dramatically different performance characteristics when used on a non-ice surface. The coefficient of friction between the ice hockey puck and a non-ice surface is many times higher than between a puck and an ice surface. Therefore, the puck moves much less freely and is more likely to tumble end-over-end and behave erratically. Hockey players who wish to improve their hockey puck handling skills need the puck to perform similarly on ice and non-ice surfaces so that skills learned while practicing on a non-ice surface transfer to the ice playing field.
There have been numerous attempts to provide pucks for the play of hockey and hockey-like games on non-ice surfaces. Generally, designs for pucks for non-ice surfaces have focused on reducing the friction between the playing surface and the puck so that the puck moves more easily across the non-ice playing surface. Some attempt has also been made to provide pucks for non-ice playing surfaces that behave similarly to an ice hockey puck on an ice-playing surface so that playing skills are transferable. According to one approach, a puck-shaped game piece is provided with a variety of protrusions from the upper and lower surface of the game piece. The protrusions contact the play surface rather than the entire flat upper or lower surface contacting the play surface. This reduces the friction between the playing surface and the body of the game piece. One example of such a puck is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,858 to Lekabich. Pucks such as these do glide more easily across a non-ice playing surface than does a traditional ice hockey puck, but these pucks behave differently than a genuine ice hockey puck on an ice surface.
According to another approach, a puck includes wheels or rollers that extend from the upper and lower surfaces of the puck so as to allow the puck to roll on these wheels or rollers. Examples of this approach are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,144 to DeMasi, Jr. et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,523 to Hu et al. Once again, pucks such as these do glide more easily over a non-ice surface, but fail to provide the handling characteristics of a genuine ice hockey puck on an ice surface.
As yet another approach, a puck-shaped game piece may include a layer of friction reducing material on its upper and lower surfaces. U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,251 to Felice discloses a puck with layers of bristle material attached to the upper and lower surfaces. The bristle material includes a plurality of fabric bristles extending perpendicularly from the upper and lower surfaces such that the ends of the bristles contact the play surface. This puck design is suitable for some playing surfaces but is less suitable to other playing surfaces. Also, it provides an appearance dissimilar to a standard hockey puck and does not provide the behavior characteristics of a genuine ice hockey puck on an ice playing surface.
Another approach is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,981 to Whisman. Whisman discloses a game puck with a layer of very high molecular weight plastic glued to the upper and lower surfaces. This approach is prone to having the layers of plastic peal away from the puck body, thereby destroying the puck. Whisman also discloses an alternative approach wherein a layer of friction-reducing plastic is molded to the upper and lower surfaces of the puck body with interconnecting channels extending between the plastic layers so as to retain them on the puck body and interconnect them. This latter approach is unnecessarily difficult to mold, since the plastic must be molded onto the rest of the puck in separate step. Whisman""s puck has a perimeter surface that is curved so as to encourage the puck to return to a flat orientation whenever it lands or is flipped onto its edge. This design departs from traditional puck shape and handling characteristics. An ice hockey puck has a straight vertical wall. Puck handling skills include the ability to xe2x80x9cedgexe2x80x9d a puck. The Whisman puck fails to provide for this. In light of the above, there remains a need for a practice hockey puck for use on a non-ice surface that has low friction and adequately duplicates the performance characteristics of a traditional hockey puck.
Sports objects such as hockey pucks are often provided as promotional items, or are marked with a logo of a team or sponsor. Traditional ice hockey pucks often have such logos or graphics disposed on their upper and/or lower surfaces. Hockey pucks for non-ice surfaces have thus far failed to address the need for a graphic displayed on an upper and/or lower surface. Therefore, there remains a need for such a display.
The present invention overcomes many of the shortcomings of the prior art by providing a practice hockey puck that has low friction when sliding across a non-ice surface and duplicates the size, shape and weight of a regulation ice hockey puck. The practice puck also duplicates the handling characteristics of an ice hockey puck, thereby allowing the player to hone their puck-handling skills on a non-ice surface and to transfer those skills to the ice-playing surface. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the practice hockey puck has a puck body with an upper and lower surface and generally flat sidewall interconnecting the upper and lower surfaces. The lower surface has a bore defined therein. A friction reducing cover has an inner surface and a generally flat outer surface. At least one connecting leg extends from the inner surface with the leg being disposed in the bore in the lower surface of the puck body so as to retain the inner surface of the cover adjacent to the lower surface of the puck body. Preferably, a second cover is provided for the upper surface of the puck body and the covers are formed from a nylon or ultra-high molecular weight plastic. These covers reduce the friction between the puck and the non-ice playing surface so that the puck glides easily thereon. Preferable, the puck body is a regulation ice hockey puck with the bores formed therein. The upper and lower covers are thin and light such that they do not affect the general appearance, size, or weight of the regulation puck. The use of a regulation puck gives the practice puck a feel and performance similar to a real puck. Preferably, a graphic is formed on the upper and/or lower surface of the puck body with the covers, which are preferably transparent, covering the graphic. The graphic may be formed by applying text or graphics to the upper or lower surface, or by positioning a piece of material with the graphic on it between the cover and the puck body.
According to one approach, a practice hockey puck according to the present invention is formed by taking a regulation hockey puck and forming bores in its upper and lower surfaces. A friction reducing cover with a plurality of legs extending therefrom is then provided and the cover is pressed onto the surface of the puck such that the legs are pressed into the bores. The legs preferably include circumferential ridges similar to a ring shank nail.